Reedy Island to Rogue Harbour – 15 nautical miles, 5 kilometres walked
We awoke to the delightful popping noises of duck hunters blowing away Daffy, Donald, Howard and chums in the marshlands near the anchorage. And by the ferocity and frequency of blasts I’m guessing the ducks didn’t have a chance.
We have a device on the boat called a windlass which pulls in the anchor or lets it out at the push of a button. This morning the push of a button returned a barrage of troubling clicking noises instead of pulling in the chain, which I assumed was a failure in the internal workings of the windlass solenoid, something we had experienced this summer but though we had fixed. I got an excellent early morning back, legs, and biceps workout by hauling in 150 feet of thick chain and a 60 pound anchor that was a real beast, especially as it was covered in gooey muck that added another few pounds.
We navigated out of the anchorage and into the C&D Canal and it was a lovely ride – calm, peaceful (except for the continuing shotgun blasts), no random floating trees like in the Erie Canal, and just a few other boats. Ana called me down to the cabin because the toaster, which runs off the inverter, was not working and I realized then that the problem with the anchor was the batteries, which seemed to be rapidly deteriorating if they were no longer able to run a toaster. The only thing getting toasted today was batteries.
After transiting most of the canal we reached Chesapeake City, pulled the boat into the bay and borrowed a dock at the private marina there as the anchorage was full of boats. We then jumped on the Zoom for our Newport Yacht Club annual general meeting and Ana gave an excellent presentation as Director of Marketing and Volunteers.
As the canal opened up into Chesapeake Bay, the wind was screaming from the north at 15 to 20 knots so we put up the headsail, shut off the motor, and did some peaceful and quiet sailing for a glorious five miles then anchored near our buddy boat in Rogue Harbour. Once we were settled we dropped the dingy, picked up Kate and Ben, headed to shore, and walked the Beaver Marsh Loop in Elk Neck State Park. It took us across a nice beach, through woodlands, up and down some rugged terrain, and around a big marsh. It felt good to get off the boat and stretch out the legs.
When we returned to the boat I found the batteries were down to 7.5 volts. “Holy shit!” I hollered. “These batteries are totally messed up. I’m getting out the generator.” So I pulled out the generator and we switched into powerboat mode with the associated smell and pollution, but with a decidedly delicious 14 volts of pure DC power from the inverter. We plugged in every device and fired up the icemaker to make use of the gigglywattts.
We all gathered together in the belly of SeaLight and were so happy to hang out with Ben and Kate again as we hadn’t been in the same space for over a week. Ana helped Kate with a travel website she was setting up while I executed my plan to eradicate the rest my cold. The plan was to use alcohol to kill off the remaining germs attacking my body and Ben was more than happy to help, so we polished off most of a bottle of Captain Morgan and felt ourselves getting wiser, funnier, and more handsome with each drink. At one point the conversation turned to retirement planning.
“Ana and I have an amazing plan,” I said as I topped up my cup with fresh spiced rum. “She brought her haircutting gear and is going to fund our travels by doing haircuts. I’ve already got a name for the business. It’s called Dock Cutzzz. This will enable us to travel indefinitely.”
“Dock Cutzzz?” Ben asked. “How many z’s?”
“Three z’s.”
“What about when you’re anchored out?”
“Harbour Cutzzz. I’ll make up two signs. She can cut hair of other cheap-assed sailors on the deck of SeaLight.”
“What kind of cutzzz do you do,” Kate asked Ana.
“I only do two cutzzz. For men, it’s the OneTwo cut. Number one on the sidezzz, number two on the top,” said Ana as she looked over a Ben, noticing his intense interest, running his hands along the sides of his head.
“How about cutzzz for women?” asked Kate.
“I call it the Tropical Lesbian. Similar to the OneTwo, but a bit longer on top for the ladiezzz.”
“Amazing! Can you cut my hair right now? I'll take the OneTwo,” said Ben wide eyed.
“Sure. You got twenty buckzzz?”
“Not on me.”
Sounds like a e tranzzzfer is possibly the way to go. Lol
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